Sunnyvale weather facts from weather.com

Sunnyvale, CA (94085) Weather Facts

July is the average warmest month. (avg temp 84F) The highest recorded temperature was 109°F in 2000. December is the average coolest month. (avg temp 59F) The lowest recorded temperature was 19°F in 1990. The maximum average precipitation occurs in January.

New Student Aeronautics Competition from NASA

Aeronautics Competitions for High School and College Students

The Fundamental Aeronautics Program of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters announces a new aeronautics competition for high school and college students for the 2007-2008 academic year.

High school students are challenged to write a research paper to explain ideas for a future aircraft that could become the "DC-3" for cargo and passengers in the year 2058. Descriptions should be well-informed and include sections on fuel, environmental effects, noise levels, runway length and condition, operating costs, passenger and cargo loads, and service operations. Notice of intent for high school entries is due on Dec. 15, 2007.

College students are invited to design the next generation, 21^st-century, "DC-3"-type aircraft. Some of the design considerations include reduced environmental impact, reduced noise, daily operations on short runways, cost analysis for production and operation, passenger and cargo limits, structure and materials, and engines. Students should also briefly describe three valid scenarios for potential use of this vehicle in the year 2058. Notice of intent for college entries is due on Jan. 19, 2008.

Any U.S. student enrolled in an accredited high school, secondary school, or home school in the United States or its territories is eligible to enter the competition for cash prizes. Non-U.S. citizens and students in international locations can enter as well, but they are not eligible for cash prizes. Trophies and certificates will be awarded to each winner, regardless of citizenship.

For complete details, visit: http://aero.larc.nasa.gov/competitions.htm "

SGC Starts!

(I promise I'm listening, Bill!)

Kevin does a short overview of schedule and rules.

Sanjoy talks about having arrived early in India to track down his family history (in particular, an old book of family trees, photos, etc. that his father last remembers seeing when he five years old) and *actually finding* the book, relatives, and an old family home in an area near Calcutta.

Bill Nye speaks on moon missions, national pride, applying to be an astronaut, skeptical feelings toward current moon mission strategies and the lack of innovation in the last decades of space. He's very knowledgeable and entertaining. :-) Now he's talking about the X-15, "Defend America Act", planetary exploration, some environmentalism, Pluto, Apophis, the "Passion, Beauty, and Joy of Science", and is now answering questions.

Time for the first coffee break!

After the break, Will Marshall, SGAC Co-Chair, goes over a lot of the history of SGAC, through SEDS, ISU, Space Generation Foundation, Space Generation Forum at UNISPACEIII, Space Generation Summit in Houston in 2002, and the Space Generation Congresses since then. Then he talks a bit about aspiring toward very lofty goals, because that's how we can make big changes. He hits on how the tools we have today with the ease of travel and using the internet have allowed us to communicate more than ever before. This allows us to work with each other with almost a "collective intelligence," where we present individuals can brainstorm and ask problems to let others work with them to solve them.

(Web 1.0 was static web pages that inform. One group putting out information for others to digest.
Web 2.0 is interactive web pages that work toward this collective intelligence of all being able to contribute and collaborate. Individuals exchanging ideas and helping each other.)

How do we keep it going after SGC to make these changes? Will suggests very frequent telecons or chat sessions (once a week, maybe) with at least 3-4 other people dedicated to communicating each week. This makes people accountable to each other and more likely to make and keep commitments. Plus it keeps everyone inspired because they're reminded that there are others who share the same passions and dedication.

After Will, the project team leaders did short intros of their projects. See summaries of the teams at the links here:
http://www.explorerswanted.com/?q=node/40

Then it was time for us all to get to know each other a little better... we went around the entire room doing short intros of who we were, where we were from, and what we do at home (work/school/etc.). We have several from our host country of India and from the rest of Asia Pacific region, several from the European and North American regions, one from the Middle East, two from Africa, and two from South America!

We have a short first meeting of project teams where we break into our groups for the first time.
Several teams may post their notes in their team forums, so check those out here:
http://www.spacegeneration.org/forum

Lunch time!

Part way into lunch, Agnieszka, the SGAC Executive Officer gives us an overview of a recent survey (with an SGAC tool) she conducted for the UN about food security. She is an excellent resource as a connection directly into the UN branches we deal with, and has the ear of many important people who love hearing about SGAC activities. Let her know when you do things for SGAC!

When we fully resume after lunch, Kevin goes over several of the tools we have at our disposal within SGAC, including Mission Forge (a project management tool with interactive task lists, schedules, and other powerful features)

Jessica takes a few minutes to review what the SGAC Communications team (formerly the PR and Media & Promotion team) is working on with everyone, and offering their services to the participants in their own home nations and regions and within their project teams.

Then half the delegates go with Will to talk about fund-raising strategy, which all teams will likely need, and the other half stays to talk more personally with the Communications team.

The Communications team talks more about what their goals are for the time at SGC and the scope of the team within SGAC. They also speak on what they can do for the other project teams. Next, Jessica reviews several communications tools that could be used by the project teams, including the SGAC blogs (http://spacegeneration.org/blog), Twitter (http://twitter.com/spacesooner) and Jaiku (http://jaiku.com/channel/SGC2007), Facebook (SGAC group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2218401662), and RSS feeds (http://www.whatisrss.com/) which can be read with readers like Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader). If any delegates are blogging anywhere, sharing photos, etc., please tag your entries with "SGC2007" so that we can easily do web searches and find you later!

Then (through a few power outages) Alex called Space Adventures via Skype (http://www.skype.com) and he flipped through charts while Tom Shelley announced a very cool opportunity to suggest experiments and activities for Space Adventures' next client to go to the International Space Station for a two week stay. More information will be up on the main page of the Space Generation website shortly, and the presentation with specific details will likely be uploaded below.

After a few short announcements, we broke for an hour before resuming with a local DJ for the opening social dance party!

Space Generation Congress 2007: Day 0

So tonight will mark the end of prep and the beginning of Space Generation Congress 2007. Kevin and I have been here in Hyderabad for two weeks now (finally did some touristy things last night with the staff which was here!).

We have most of the staff and the team leads here, and we're having the first staff meeting, pretty much now.

Talking about tasks left, which are
* man the booth at IAC (we'll have lots to hand out)
* hand out lots of SGAC things at IAC
* help out setting up the IAC booth on Sunday
* get the wireless working in the main room
* alert the media
* finish name tags
* sort SpaceX bags by shirt size
* stuff the Space Generation messenger bags with all the printed stuff which is completely done!
* get info together for culture night and free time

Just took some pics as part one of a gagillion of my team's promo collection tasks, which will make an awesome database of raw materials for SGC and SGAC promotion.

Talking about more logistics and preparation, and there's really very little left to do. Whoo!!

In Hyderabad, India with Kevin

We're here! (after some few dozen hours of travel...)

Hotel is hip and awesome; staff is super friendly; haven't seen much of the city yet... probably going to go out shopping on Monday. :-)

Will put pictures up soon!

Twitter

I have my twitter feed piped in on the right. I update it quite often on what I'm doing day-to-day.

http://www.twitter.com/spacesooner

Jac is visiting

And we're having a lovely time.
Did SF yesterday. Got my vaccinations and visa, so I'm ready to go for India. Leave Sept 5.

space survey for all!

From Agnieszka Lukaszczyk, SGAC Executive Officer:

Dear all,

On behalf of SGAC I am currently conducting a study for the UN/IAF workshop
on the topic of "Space Technology for Sustainable Development: Towards Food
Security." The Workshop will be held in conjunction with the 58th
International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which will take place from 24 to
28 September 2007 in Hyderabad, India.

The aim of this study is the analysis of the attitudes/opinions of young
people around the world towards the subject matter. In order to gather a
proper data a survey was developed. This survey will feed in to the SGAC
report to the workshop.

I would kindly like to ask you to complete this survey
http://www.spacegeneration.org/node/601 and forward it to as many people as

you can (friends, colleagues, students, etc.). Participants do not have to

have a prior knowledge of space matters as I want to measure general
trends/awareness in regards to the topic of the workshop.

Your help and participation is greatly appreciated!

Best Wishes!

letters

Came across this historic letter from Von Braun to Johnson posted by the history office. Really interesting stuff.

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/vp_ljohnson.pdf

Space Gen Space Agency, go!

http://www.spacegeneration.org/space_missions

Space Generation Space Agency, go!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/19/DDG52R22EV1.DTL

Interesting... probably have to go see this fairly soon...
will there be vrrrooming in space?

some links for July; and June

Okay, here's your flying cars. Or where they'll come from, anyway.
http://cafefoundation.org/v2/pav_why.php

Lots of stories about CoLab going around.
http://news.com.com/Next+NASA+mission+Twitter+and+Facebook/2100-11397_3-6193493.html?tag=nefd.lede
(although this conference was supposed to be non-attribution, and the writer gets a LOT of facts quite wrong)

http://www.nasa.gov/nasaedge/
I actually like this :-) You can subscribe at iTunes.
Need to get them out to CoLab as soon as we get the real building.

I'm now working on NGEC-2 and NGEC-3. And CoLab and the Small Spacecraft website, and of course the internship (there's about 15 direct interns I'm interacting with most every day and another 15+ indirect ones I'm supposed to interact with sometimes).

Also microblogging at http://spacesooner.jaiku.com/

Oh, hey, you know what JPL and NASA DIDN'T do? Beagle 2. Yeah, Transformers. NOT US. That was ESA, headed by British people. Also: lander, no rovers. No roving at all. Oh, and pretty much everything else about that mission/Mars/mission ops they got wrong. Kinda insulting, movie. Thanks.

space flowers

Martian winner at Chelsea

Sarah Eberle's Mars-themed garden upsets the odds to win the Chelsea Flower Show.

Cool link that was brought to my attention.

stories of astros past

There's your drama, baby.

Just got to tell the story.

Some things you should probably know

Things you should probably know:

1. NGEC-II. It's a thing. More later.
2. Colab Luna Philosophie tomorrow.
3. NASA CoLab in general.
4. This is still the funniest thing ever.
5. This is still the best album ever. You should probably go buy it right now. If you already own it, still go buy it right now and give it to someone else.
6. While we're at it, this is the best show ever. You saw that coming. Buy it, see above.
7. This clip, while hilarious, is quite indicative of the things wrong with the space program. Also indicative of the fact that Steve's wacky fun.
8. Mel is awesome. And probably cold right now.
9. The interns are coming.
10. Second Life. Are you there yet? You can't get there from here.

OVER

GREAT press! Good collection of a lot of it at NASA Watch, including Keith's incredibly kind and awesome words.

Most awesome pics from Scott Beale at Laughing Squid:
Tours
PARTY

Thanks for coming out... we estimate our attendance, including volunteers, exhibitors, etc. to be about 4,000. How's that for reaching out and sharing NASA? And as many many of the bloggers and press have said... the 18-30s were as much into the science/tech/space and our speakers and demos as they were for the music and dancing. How cool!? People just have to be exposed to it, first hand and in their face, not on paper, and they love it. That's how space and science are.

biggest YN party *ever*

Can't make it?
(few tickets still on sale, though... www.worldspaceparty.com)

Fake it:
live webcast HERE
starts at 7:30 PDT

OR in party in Second Life

You should get an account set up there, anyway, and this is a great time to do it!

Also, I'd like to personally thank Our Sponsors, because these orgs ROCK.

officemates in the news

This is the kind of *awesome* stuff that's going on in my office.
(Jessy, who's quoted here, is also in charge of Yuri's Night Bay Area.)

YN VIP / ZERO G

I know you guys want to fly.
Or know someone who does...

$5k for an unforgettable experience, people, and it supports The Party.

Lose all your weight at once.
Be Superman.
Feel your eyeballs float in your head.

It's amazing.

Do it!
Tell people about it!

FLYER

It's like this:


Stephen Hawking's going to do it, too, a couple days later on the same plane!

Full on infotastic: Yuri's Night Bay Area

**************************
Prepare for Liftoff!

WWW.WORLDSPACEPARTY.ORG

Get ready for something entirely different.

On April 13th the Bay Area joins the world in celebration of space exploration in a unique convergence of artists, scientists, astronauts, performers and musicians.

Yuri's Night is a commemoration of humankind's first venture into space, by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. This gathering bridges national, cultural, generational and social barriers to ignite excitement about what is new on the horizon in space exploration and to remind us of the magnificent feats humanity is capable of.

Yuri's Night Bay Area will be held at Moffett Field in the NASA Ames Research Center's massive SOFIA hangar, home to the world's largest aerial observatory. Our host for the evening is pioneering space traveler Anousheh Anasari, the first privately funded female to reach orbit. She is joined by Dr. Chris McKay, world renowned expert in astrobiology and terraformation with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames Research Center. Then, explore a dazzling array of interactive art installations and science demos, interwoven with musical performances by some of the world's finest electronic musicians.

Cutting-edge interactive technology, including:

• Exploration of the world through NASA World Wind
• Gigapan, explorable high resolution panoramas from around the world
• A portal into Second Life
  
• Burning Man Earth, Google's Black Rock City browser
  

Science demonstrations and innovations from the worl ds of robotics, engineering, chemistry, and astronomy, will also be on display:

• Magnetic bacteria
  
• Human powered vehicle show and tell
• Do-it-yourself booths from Squid Labs, TechShop, and more
  
• NASA robotics, including the next generation of rovers
• Robotics competition, streamed in live

Engage with space-inspired art installations and video documentary screenings:

• StarZipper, created by internationally renowned artist Michael Light and collaborator Dave Rattray
  
• Large-scale sculpture from Michael Christian
• Peter Foucault's Motion Sensor Drawing Robots
• Visual artists Celestine Star and Kosho will be Spinning Light into Space throughout the night

Experience rare video works documenting art in space:

• Matières Chorégraphiques by Kitsou Dubois, celebrated French dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Ki Productions

• Projects from the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium, Lowry Burgess's monumental project The Seed of the Infinite Absolute, Lorelei Lisowsky, and local Bay Area artist Frank Pietronigro ' Drift Painting' in Microgravity
• Meet Japan's space artist Ayako Ono
• Jean Luc Soret's Space Art project videos curated direct from Paris's International @rt Outsiders Festival.

Enter the Documentary Dome and immerse yourself in the world's greatest space-related documentaries, including screenings of:

• HBO's original production, 'From the Earth To The Moon'

• Dr. Maryanne Galvin's 'What's Going On Up There?'

• 'Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery': a project of international cooperation between European Space Agency & NASA that dramatically documents The Hubble Space Telescope.

Witness awe-inspiring space-themed performances featuring:

• KC Bella Fuega and Spiral Hoop Dance (orbital hooping and bellydance)
• Flowtoys (celestial light performance and UFO flowplanes)
• VigilAntiUP (intergalactic stilting)
  
• A Parade from the Future (with cutting edge Bay Area circuit benders and other worldly creatures).

Live dance and acrobatics fused with audiovisual performances, will be coordinated with a world-class lineup of live electronic music:

PLAID - Warp Records

TELEFON TEL AVIV - Hefty Records
BLUETECH - Aleph Zero, Native State
OOAH + BORETA - Glitch Mob, LA/SF
SUTEKH - Context, Soul Jazz, Leaf
MR. PROJECTILE & JONAH SHARP (aka SPACETIME CONTINUUM) - Reflective, Astralwerks
RD - Designed Disorder, Glitch Mob
WELDER - Cyberset
MOZAIC - Nexus
DR. TOAST - False Profit

Meanwhile, outside on the tarmac, the SPACE COWBOYS will have their own dynamic lineup of djs aboard their interstellar party transporter, the UNIMOG. Also on the tarmac will be Rabbit in the Moon's outside VJ set PLUS large scale sculpture and multimedia installations from some of the bay area's most talented artists.

This year's theme is the greenification of space. The event is bio-diesel powered, a variety of organic food and drink will be available, waste products will be composted and recycled, and one tree will be planted for every ticket sold in an effort to offset the event's carbon emissions.

Come join us in celebrating the accomplishments of mankind on a collective cosmic journey to the depths of space and beyond.

**********************
Friday, April 13^th, 2007
Event opens at 6:30pm

NASA Ames Research Center* Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA, 94035

Tickets are on sale now. Limited $25 presale tickets still available, but not for long!

Purchase advance tickets at: www.worldspaceparty.com/tickets

Limited VIP tickets available. Privileges include: VIP room overlooking the main floor, open bar and food throughout the evening, a chance to meet silicon valley innovators and dynamic thinkers, exclusive Bay Area Yuri's Night memorabilia and much more to be announced.

PLUS! Space Cadets are invited to go weightless and experience zero-gravity on Sunday, April 22, 2007! This unique VIP experience will provide you with a ZeroG flight flown from San Jose International Airport PLUS exclusive access to all Yuri's Night Bay Area 2007 events. 3-2-1 Liftoff! VIP Flight Tickets $5,000.00 each. Email zerogartists@mac.com to reserve your seat today. Don't let this zero gravity opportunity to fly float by!

As always, please check www.worldspaceparty.com for the latest…

Yuri's Night Bay Area Crew, Over and Out.

End Transmission.
-----------------------------------------------
References to NASA Ames shall not be construed as official NASA approval or endorsement of any non-Governmental or commercial entity or activity.